Its water usage by about 30 . And thats hugely important in terms of the amount of infrastructure that communitys going to require. Narrator las vegas is one of the fastgrowing areas in the country. Its a relatively new city under constant construction. But because its in the arid mojave desert, the challenge of las vegas is supply. Woman all the growth and everything thats occurred in Southern Nevada has been with Colorado River water. Without it, the west as you know it today couldnt exist. Narrator to sustain their growing community with its limited supply, las vegas learned to be extremely efficient. Mulroy this is a desert, and it has its own beauty, but you have to get beyond what youre used to. As long as people recognize theyre moving to the desert and give up this notion that they have to bring eastern vegetation with them and make the necessary adaptations in their own life, desert communities can continue to live. Man the biggest water user in the desert is turf. Turf uses a
We dont leave a lot of flexibility to dig that all up and replace it with something else. Sinha so we have to also teach our students, the workforce, that there is a new science repair, renewal, and rehabilitation. Thats different from building something new. You cannot fix each and every crack in the city. Its like each city, youre talking about 3,000, 5,000 miles of pipe. So you have to prioritize where they can go and fix the system. Narrator each city faces unique situations, so they must determine the Asset Management approach that best addresses these challenges. Inspections can be done with various technologies, often by a robot. Or personally by a technician on a bicycle. Sensors detect breaks, cracks, and weaknesses in the pipe. Man we have roots at this cap lateral at 79. Narrator tree roots can grow into the pipe, splitting it apart. Man more light roots at 69. Narrator sometimes they may even find fully collapsed sections. After gathering the data, utilities can assess the
And if the public gets behind it. Narrator even the casinos and resorts have adapted to efficient water use. Mulroy the Las Vegas Strip uses only 3 of all the water that we deliver. And when you think about it, its the largest economic driver in the state, the largest employer, bar none. They knew they had to go the extra mile. And theyve embraced conservation. And its almost beyond belief that theyre right now in the process of building another 15,000 rooms. Southern nevada recycles 100 of its wastewater. So for every gallon we put back in the colorado, we can take an additional gallon out, or we send it to reuse facilities. And we deliver it to golf courses and parks and other outside applications. Man waters about a third of our budget. Thats a lot of money. The lake right over here, 24 hours ago that was in somebodys house. Its been through a treatment plant. And now its in our lake and were watering with it. Narrator these reuse and conservation techniques enable las vegas to exis
But i know theyll have to fix the water and sewer infrastructure. Woman the city had chronic sewage overflows into the chattahoochee and its tributaries. Fecal coliform bacteria levels were in the millions of colonies per hundred milliliter, which was a significant Public Health threat. And this had been occurring for decades. But neither the federal epa nor the epd back in the 90s were willing to take action under the clean water act to make the city fix its plumbing. So in 1994, we started upper chattahoochee river keeper. We filed a clean water act lawsuit. In 1997, we won. And so for the past decade, the city has embarked on a program to clean up the river. Now, with 1,800 miles of sewer system, three sewage plants and combined sewer overflows, it took a number of years to figure out what would be the solution. We are facing a crisis in infrastructure. Bethea a huge change came about when mayor Shirley Franklin became the mayor of atlanta. Were having to choose how to spend our mon
And it minimizes cost, because obviously, if youve got a leak thats been leaking for sometime, youre going to see a lot of undermining of the roadways, potential property damage. Fisher all the sensors in the field come into this location. These two operators behind me operate the entire water system, 24 7. So we can see all of our reservoirs, their elevations, whether theyre going up or down, how much water were getting from our two Treatment Plants. We try to move it very quickly through the system and serve it to our customers in the most economic and efficient manner. Narrator las vegas serves as an example for cities across the country, whether they have a limited supply or not. And many utilities can identify with the struggles that come with maintaining underground assets to support a growing population. One of the most common issues that municipalities share is water loss. Melosi because its not a catastrophic issue, we dont think much about it. But there is a 10 , 20 , 30 wate